24 Days of Death and Destruction: The Overland Campaign opened with lengthy, bloody engagements at the Wilderness (May 5-7) and Spotsylvania Court House (May 8-21). The Battle of Haw’s Shop resulted from a scouting expedition by Union cavalry trying to learn the Army of Northern Virginia’s location in the wake of fighting along the North Anna River a few days earlier. (Map Graphics © DFL Group 2019)